Undated.
View shows the 'Forge and Cracker', the blast furnace of the West Yorkshire Iron and Coal Co., on a site off Moor Knoll Lane. Opened in 1868, its part owner William Firth also had an interest in Topcliffe Colliery, West Ardsley, and used coal and ironstone from there. The cracker made furnace slag into road metal. After the ironworks closed in the 1920s/1930s, the site was purchased by the Limmer and Trinidad Asphalt Co., later taken over by the Tarmac Co. The ironworks were the site of an accident in 1908 when a blast furnace exploded killing five and seriously injuring 13. [internal reference; 2010930_171233:LEO 6318]